KNOWLEDGE TO THE POOR
REVOLUTION TAKING HIGH-END SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE
TO THE FARM FIELDS THROUGH INNOVATIVE ICT TOOLS
AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING APPROACHES FOR A FOOD
SECURE FUTURE
Dr.Guntuku Dileepkumar
Global Leader, Knowledge Sharing and Innovation
Director, Center of Excellence in ICT Innovations for Agriculture
Coordinator, ICRISAT South-South Initiative
Introduction
The world’s population is exceedingly growing at a faster pace
expected to reach 9.1 billion by 2050. To meet the growing needs of the
population, a 70% increase in food production is required. In a world
millions of food insecure farmers’ livelihoods, rise and fall with the
agricultural produce every year, food security will continue to pose a
challenge for years to come, reminding us that innovative solutions will be
if we are to achieve global food security.
and is
world’s
where,
fate of
critical
needed
To achieve the desired goals, it is important to review the cause of problem
and find the solutions to questions like;
How can we improve productivity and feed 9.1 billion people by 2050?
How can we take the impressive gains in productivity found in some parts
of the world and make them the norm across the developing parts of the globe?
How can we empower the smallholder agriculture to contribute to global
food security?
There are a lot of factors which are resulting in the growth of food
insecurity and widespread poverty; it is in this context of globalizing agriculture,
where the need for information becomes most intense. The smallholder farmers,
who provide a significant portion of world’s food, need access to right information
at the right time to advance their work on an equivalent scale, so as to match the
industrial-scale producers. Information and technology has become a forte of the
industrial producers, with the help of internet, phone, digital tools, and other
technological aids smallholder farmers can garner various information on various
topics related to agriculture, etc.
In this paper, the author will analyze and present the experiences from a
few select pilot projects of knowledge sharing innovation programme of ICRISAT
on ICT for agriculture and will discuss potential new strategies and policies
needed to enhance and sustain adoption of ICT based novel knowledge sharing
approaches that contributes to the sustainable agriculture development,
especially of resource poor farmers and other actors in market and value-addition
chains. The presenter will also provide an outlook for a new paradigm for bringing
together food security and ICT innovations in Agriculture for a food secure future
through “knowledge to the poor revolution.”
Towards food security: Challenges and opportunities
For a more food-secure world, it is imperative that millions of resource-poor
small farms in developing countries raise their agricultural productivity
significantly by making them resilient to shocks and increasing their incomes.
Farmers in developing countries are plagued by the lack of information or
scientific knowledge regarding the right agricultural techniques, crop and soil
profile, weather data, market price information etc. With traditional extension
systems failing, there is an immediate need to bridge the information gap between
research labs and farmer fields.
Agricultural extension services played a crucial role in advancing food
security during the ‘Green Revolution’ by enhancing agricultural productivity
through high yielding varieties, high end scientific knowledge and support from
research labs to farmer fields. Most of these traditional extensions systems are
fast becoming obsolete and at best, they are woefully inadequate in terms of
infrastructure and human resources. For example, there is just one Agricultural
Extension Officer for every 2000 farmers in India and the situation is far worse in
some parts of Africa. Or else, consider the dismal fact that an average farmer in
India receives less than 45 minutes of extension support per year even if the
extension officer devotes his/her time fully for extension activities.
Unlike during the green revolution, today’s agriculture is entangled in a
myriad of
challenges such as climate change, land degradation, loss of
biodiversity, energy crisis, population explosion and the complexities multiply
when considering that the resources from federal and state agencies in support of
traditional extension systems are dwindling. However, advances in the
information and communication technologies; open data and knowledge solutions
which did not exist during the green revolution, currently provide new
opportunities to address these pressing global challenges.
Knowledge sharing and innovation programme at ICRISAT
The KSI program at ICRISAT is positioned as cross cutting area with an
aim to transform research results into data, information and education services
to satisfy the information needs of various stakeholders thereby improving
ICRISATs capability to inform, dialogue with, and serve its stakeholders.
KSI executes its activities along three tracks:
(i) Knowledge Management (KM) for Cultural Change,
(ii) KM for enhanced Organizational Effectiveness
(iii)Innovations in knowledge sharing for impact.
And five different units and one interdisciplinary platform:
(i) Information Systems Unit (ISU) – Sustains ICRISAT’s technology edge
The primary role of ISU is to strengthen and enhance ICRISAT’s
technological edge in IT through the innovative adaptation of ICT software and
services. Modernization of IT infrastructure contributes for enhanced interaction
and participation of ICRISAT scientists, scholars and staff in various partnershipbased activities.
(ii) Data Management Unit (DMU) – Access to Data to get Successful Results
In 2012, DMU was established, to mainstream, support and manage
research data preservation and publication across the institute, covering all
locations and thematic/program areas. The primary role of DMU is to develop
strategies and systems to aggregate research data that are produced across the
institute, and organize it efficiently in a “central data repository” to provide access
to the global scientific community. The DMU does not replace the stewardship of
scientists in data gathering and analysis, nor the use of such data in publications
or training. The DMU is a support unit to assist scientists in providing efficient
data management tools and platforms for enhancing and expediting the data
analysis and report generation activities of scientists.
(iii)
Library and Information Services (LIS) – Available access to research
publications
The Library and Information Services (LIS) units’ primary responsibility is
to connect ICRISAT researchers with information that they need to carry out their
research assignments. One of the key services of the library is Selective
Dissemination of Information to ICRISAT scientists. ICRISAT adopted an Open
Access policy to share and disseminate the publications of the Institute’s
research. This was adopted to more systematically assemble and preserve the
scientific output of the institution; provide scientific information services to
external users, with special focus on universities, researchers, and research
institutions in the developing countries; provide easier access to the entire range
of scientific publications of ICRISAT in full text; enhance the profile of the
researchers and the institution; contribute to increasing the impact of outcomes;
and provide tangible and consistent indicators for the performance evaluation of
the staff and the institution.
(iv) Learning systems Unit (LSU) – Learning by doing
Capacity building of scientists, students and scholars plays an important
role in the pursuit of ICRISAT’s vision. LSU contributes to ensuring that all
partners have the required capacities to effectively contribute to the research
programs. The approach of ‘learning by doing’ modality through scholarly studies,
joint project attachments, and specialized courses for scientists and students is
continuously pursued and sustained. Since the inception of the ICRISAT capacity
building program, LSU has continuously build on the research skills of research
fellows, scholars, and interns (referred to as Learner-Participants) from various
partner institutions worldwide.
(v) ICT for development (ICT4D) – Taking science knowledge to the farmers
ICT4D aims at turning the latest technological innovations into real world
success stories for smallholders’ farmers.
All these five units have been contributing to the knowledge sharing and
innovations by global dissemination of ICRISATs research data, knowledge and
information. The need for having an interdisciplinary platform encouraged
ICRISAT to open a Center of Excellence in ICT Innovations for Agriculture to
design and develop new ICT tools and innovations in knowledge sharing
approaches.
Center of excellence in ICT innovations for agriculture
In the year, 2012, on the occasion of ICRISAT’s 40th anniversary, an
interdisciplinary platform, i.e. the Center of Excellence (COE) in ICT innovations
for Agriculture was launched, with an objective to integrate science, technology
and value chain approaches to design and develop affordable technologies, new
tools, platforms, methods etc. The products (or) deliverables of COE contribute to
enhancing knowledge transfers, extension and capacity building activities, while
capitalizing on a coalition of strategic partnerships from diversified areas to work
on a specific global issues / problems – ranging from climate change to global
food security, enhancing traditional extension and education systems, access to
markets and quality inputs etc.
Together with its partners, COE designs and develops ICT solutions that
link farmers with other agricultural stakeholders. Some of the notable initiatives
tested and refined by COE include:
Open Data and Knowledge Solutions
i. Open Access Repository (OAR) – Provides an easy interface for researchers,
practitioners, or web-connected farmers to use, build on and share research
conducted at ICRISAT. Any participants or non-participants can access the
OAR which provides free, immediate, permanent access to the full text of all
the publications. There are more than 8, 163 records. The repository witnessed
625,930 downloads from 105 countries.
In general, Open access means the freedom one enjoys in accessing any
sort of information, anywhere and at any time. It is basically the freedom to read
and download the papers on any topics which are published on the particular
website. ICRISAT is one the very first centers among all CGIAR centers that
adopted the open access policy of its learning resources.
ii. The Open Data Repository enables the availability of open data to global
community. There are 464 data files in more than 9 dataverse with 59
studies.
The Open Data movement provides a leveraging effect on data,
collaboration, and innovation that have been proved useful in accelerating crop
improvement for sustainable food production particularly in the marginal
environments of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
iii. The KSI Connect: A Virtual Knowledge Series Platform from ICRISAT
highlights the most important projects, cutting edge research and fascinating
success stories to a global audience in the form of open information and
educational video resources, face to face virtual training and learning sessions
and virtual expert-farmer interactions.
Talks given by the experts from all different fields are live streamed and
recorded. Since its launch in July 2012, more than 443 videos have been
uploaded with around 20,224 views and around 10,300 unique users from more
than 166 countries.
iv. The AgED Open Courseware platform - offers a research infused curriculum
providing life-long learning opportunities to students, faculty members,
extension agents, smallholder farmers etc. through open educational
resources- anywhere and anytime — in a cost effective manner. It is an
innovative learning platform for global learners, which engages them in
lifelong learning mode.
AgED Open CourseWare is developed using an open source learning
management system called Moodle. The platform not only hosts ICRISAT courses
but also allow partners to host their courses. It has become very popular among
educators around the world as a tool for creating online dynamic web sites for
students.
Currently, the AgEd Open Courseware has 7 ICRISAT Courses, 11 FAO
Short Courses, 1 SEWA Learning Modules and more than 6300 LearnerParticipants from around 160 Countries.
Empower
Systems
Smallholder
Agriculture
through
ICT
Mediated
Extension
The current yields in the smallholder farmers’ fields are well below their
potential; the yield gaps vary by anything between 100-300% across different
crops. An important factor is the lack of awareness of, and lack of access to, high
quality inputs such as seed, fertilizer, and agro-chemicals.
Furthermore,
smallholder farmers do not employ improved crop management practices and
their post-harvest management strategies are inadequate primarily due to a lack
of knowledge. Farmers are also marginalized from participating in markets due to
unreliable productivity, a lack of market information, and weak market linkages.
Farmers need to be able to access and effectively use the right information
at the right time. Although classic traditional extension system failed to meet this
need, the rise of new ICT tools and devices have enabled modern ICT mediated
extension more efficient and farmer-friendly, with real-time advice.
The COE has developed many information systems, linking research,
extension and markets. For example, “Krishi Gyan Sagar and Krishi Vani
powered by the GreenSIM” brings out the best of affordable technologies,
knowledge solutions, availability of quality inputs, credit and insurance at the
doorsteps of smallholder farmers, anchored on public-private partnership.
Krishi Gyan Sagar is a pull based ICT mediated extension system, which
supports both tablet/smart phone as well as web. The app for tablet/ mobile
consists of various modules for providing several personalized information and
input delivery services to the farmers. In addition to this, the web based
application helps to generate quick reports, market intelligence, intelligent
decision support system and acts as a proficient Monitoring and Evaluation
(M&E) tool.
Krishi Vani is a Push based, mobile mediated agro-advisory platform that
delivers 35 free voice messages per week per farmer in 16 categories (weather,
market, crop information, government schemes, nutrition, health etc.) in regional
languages. Through this application, generic advisories are delivered to groups of
farmers in a location on the mobile phone owned by them and enabled by Green
SIM.
The project observed great impacts on the smallholder farmers. More than
40,000 smallholder farmers in 171 villages have been receiving benefits from this
project in a span of six months. It contributed to bringing forward infoentrepreneurs as new professionals to strengthen the traditional agricultural
extension system. It also provided an opportunity to the rural women/youth to
gain additional income as info entrepreneurs. The project received the Flame
Award 2013, instituted by the Rural Marketing Association of India (RMAI) for
showcasing innovative use of technology of the decade.
Next Generation Innovations
The rise of new ICT devices such as tablets and smart phones will certainly
create new opportunities for user-friendly information tools for better agricultural
advice services and inform farmers about quality inputs and market access. They
will also create job opportunities for info-entrepreneurs that can create crucial
added value for farmers. KSI, at ICRISAT strongly believes in a financially
sustainable ‘backbone communication network’ that can be developed with
advanced ICT tools anchored on people-public-private partnerships to improve
the quality and convenience of information (crop, market, weather and user’s
choice) dissemination to smallholder farmers and transparency within the value
chains.
ICRISAT has recently launched two next generation initiatives:
Green PHABLET powered by the Green SIM is an electronic device
integrated with phone and tablet (Phablet) technology, coupled with other
required components for use of agriculture data- information-knowledge
aggregation and dissemination and also support for many other usages. The
device comes with unique features like water resistance, dustproof, shockproof,
break proof, sunlight readability etc. The GreenPHABLET powered by the Green
SIM is an ICT mediated tool for modernizing agriculture extension to address the
challenges of infrastructure and human resources by creating info-entrepreneurs,
to deliver knowledge solutions and quality inputs at smallholder farmer’s
doorsteps through voice advisory services and mobile money.
One Agriculture-One Science (OA-OS) is a common platform to
comprehensively address gaps in agricultural education with the latest
advancements in technology and knowledge flow strategies. One Agriculture One
Science aims to bring various disciplines in agricultural education such as crop,
livestock, fisheries, natural resource management, etc. under one roof with
strategic partnerships across the globe.
The basis for the inception of this initiative arises from the question, “How
do we make agriculture education more attractive to the youth and also more
employable?” which has been asked in several forums, conferences and meetings
in the recent years.
To address this challenge an international partnership across India, Africa
and the USA has formed the ‘One Agriculture-One Science: A Global Education
Consortium’ initiative aimed at revitalizing global agricultural education, capacity
building and technology transfer. This has been made possible with the
collaboration of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics (ICRISAT) and top universities from all these continents.Global
collaborative partners from a wide range of interdisciplinary expertise and
experience gathered for the launch of the initiative in an expert consultation
workshop jointly organized by ICRISAT, the University of Florida (UF), Michigan
State University and Iowa State University, held at UF, Gainesville, Florida, USA
on 17-18 July 2014. A partnership framework under the ‘One Agriculture-One
Science’ umbrella was developed during the workshop with all participating
partners that includes land grant state universities in the USA, the Indian
Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the African Green Revolution Alliance
(AGRA), the Regional University Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
(RUFORUM, a consortium of 42 universities in 19 countries in Africa), US
Department of Agriculture, US Agency for International Development, and CGIAR
centers.
The group of internationally-minded educators subsequently organized a
second meeting in India and launched a pilot project for One Agriculture-One
Science's involvement for Indian agriculture education. Further the meeting at
the World Food Prize symposium, Iowa demonstrated mounting support, as
academics and other food leaders attended a panel discussion held as part of the
Borlaug Dialogue proceedings.
Replicating and up-scaling proven successful experiences
ICRISAT strongly believes in replicating and up-scaling impressive gains in
productivity found in some parts of the world and making them the norm across
the developing parts of the globe.
To bring this idea into reality, ICRISAT Governing Board collaboratively
launched ICRISAT South-South Initiative that provides a platform for focused
and systematic international relationships critical for a more effective and
inclusive development cooperation between India and Africa.The key mission of
IS-SI is to create better policies, more effective institutions, improved
infrastructure, and better access to markets and to higher quality inputs for dryland farmers in South Asia – Sub Saharan Africa.
The IS-SI initiative was announced in the 64th Governing Board meeting
held in ICRISAT, Patancheru on 21-24 March, 2011. The partnerships further
strengthened with the national and international institutes, round table meetings
were organized with the ambassadors of various embassies and exchange visits
also encouraged. An execution framework has been developed and approved by
ICRISAT Governing board to further strengthen the IS-SI activities. ICRISAT
South-South Initiative (IS-SI) as a platform for focused and systematic
partnership towards stronger and inclusive development cooperation between the
two continents.
IS-SI in the coming years focuses to open up more opportunities for
increased financial and technical support and enhanced public-private-people
partnerships on research-for-development.
KSI contributions towards knowledge to the poor revolution
The KSI team at ICRISAT has been executing novel ideas that have had
global implications, impacting communities of farmers, researchers, scientists,
students etc. For example, users of the KSI Connect platform come from 166
countries, cutting across regional and national boundaries. Several services,
such as the mobile advisory services, are provided in regional languages –
ensuring that language is not a barrier.
Initiatives like KrishiGyan Sagar and Krishi Vani has benefited several
smallholder farmers in the drought prone regions of Adakkal and Ananthapur, of
South Central India. With the help of agro-advisory voice mediated ICT extension
services, the farmers were able to save their crops from harsh weather conditions.
Similarly, the web-based learning services touch different levels of users
ranging from the tech-savvy farmer to experts and scientists – for example,
virtual expert to farmer sessions link the source of the knowledge with its
beneficiary.
Implementation of various innovative knowledge sharing platforms like
KSIConnect, AgED Open Courseware, Open Data and knowledge repositories;
GreenPHABLET powered by the GreenSIM, and the next generation of ICT
innovations will be beneficial to the smallholder farmers and several other
stakeholder, by going beyond the norm and providing them with various services
ranging from agro-advisory information to providing quality inputs (on seeds,
fertilizers, pesticides, credit and insurance) and other services such as, access to
markets and information on farmer and agri-business entrepreneur support
systems.
Initiatives like KrishiGyan Sagar and Krishi Vani has benefited several
smallholder farmers in the drought prone regions of Adakkal and Ananthapur, of
South Central India. With the help of agro-advisory voice mediated ICT extension
services, the farmers were able to save their crops from harsh weather conditions.
Providing these knowledge services could be financially viable for infoentrepreneurs through provision of incentives for their services either through
private sector corporate social responsibility or business models by bringing
reforms in the supply and distribution channel for a win-win situation.
“ICRISAT's ICT-enabled information services have been successful
increating para-extension workers out of a rural youth/women, with only
marginal investment and has led the world in a new direction to address the
inadequate infrastructure and human resources challenges being faced by the
traditional extension systems ” stated by several experts across the globe.
The humankind has made great technological strides in various sectors
such as medicine, defence, travel, energy, communications etc. In this scenario,
it is imperious that advances in ICTs be brought in to transform agriculture, one
of the most basic and traditional sectors in the world. ICT has the potential to
bring information to the fingertips of farmers, a key notion to food security on a
global scale. Modern agriculture needs such foresight – or a vision to strengthen
core scientific research and make it available to the smallholder farmer fields
through the application of ICTs.
Knowledge Sharing and Innovation program at ICRISAT over the years has
successfully demonstrated the ways to create a sustainable “backbone
communication network” that will improve the quality and convenience of
information dissemination and knowledge sharing to various stakeholders that
include smallholder farmers thereby contributing to ‘knowledge to the poor’
revolution.
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